ANN ARBOR -- When it comes to student football ticket sales, the numbers aren't lying at Michigan.

And, as a result, the athletic department is doing what it can to take a step back and re-examine the situation.

In reality, Michigan is now trying to fix a somewhat broken relationship between its athletic department and its student ticket base.

Thursday night, Michigan rolled out plans for its new "Football Student Advisory Council." The council will be made up of 20 selected students who will work closely with the athletic department throughout the football season. To voice concerns, to offer suggestions and to figure out a way to make the student football experience the best it can be.

"We took a step back, looked at our relationship with the students and -- as you know -- it wasn't great last year," said Hunter Lochmann, the athletic department's chief marketing officer. "We're working with the Central Student Government and in constant communication (with them), and this really helped us get that student voice in there. But we realized, 'it's great we're working with the (CSG), but let's also get more student voices in there.

"What better than to take 20 of our existing student season ticket holders (and hear their voice)."

In May, Michigan announced that it expects student ticket sales to drop from around 20,000 a year ago to 13-14,000 in 2014.

That's a problem.

In an effort to fix the issue, the new council will feature four freshmen season ticket holders, four sophomores, four juniors, four seniors and four graduate students. Any student holding a season ticket can apply to be a part of the council, until the deadline of Aug. 8.

From there, Michigan's athletic department will do its best to select a 20-person group that achieves "a cross section that mimics what the makeup of the base is -- four from each class, males and females, differing attendance rates."

All members of the council will be chosen by the Michigan athletic department.

Michigan caught considerable heat from its student body a year ago when it introduced a general admission student ticket policy for football games. The new policy -- along with a price hike (Michigan's student season ticket now costs a Big Ten-high $295) -- led to a 76-percent disapproval rate when 7,000 students were surveyed on the matter after the season.

General admission lasted only one season, though, and it was replaced by a loyalty program that rewards students based on their attendance during the previous season.

That was one step in the right direction, Lochmann said. But it wasn't enough.

"Our goal is to, quite frankly, repair our relationship with some students who were just traumatized by the (general admission) last year and let us know about it," he said. "We only think it'll be a positive thing to get more students involved."

While Michigan continues to work on repairing its student ticket situation, much has been made about the state of the general ticket base for next season.

The Wolverines' home schedule for 2014 is about as weak as its been in recent memory -- with home games against Appalachian State, Miami-Ohio, Utah, Minnesota, Penn State, Indiana and Maryland.

Lochmann said Friday that general season ticket sales (non-students) are expected to be down "by a little over 1 percent" for next season.

Asked if Michigan fears having a situation where its full attendance in the stadium for any home game this season dips below the 100,000 mark -- something that hasn't happened since 1975 -- Lochmann said no.

"(Some numbers may) potentially be lower than normal in the past, sure," Lochmann said. "I know there's a lot of eyeballs talking about the 100,000 -- we're not going to go below 100,000.

"We're in good shape. We have some room to grow, we've got a lot of good ticket packs out there and we're going to work hard over the next five weeks to continue to sell some of these. We're comfortable (that) we're going to exceed (the 100,000 number)."